How many times today have you answered the phone when you were in the middle of something?
....in other words how many times did you allow a piece of noisy plastic to interrupt you?
In the last decade we have not only redesigned the phone but we have changed the rules associated with phone use. Or have we.......
For most of us the phone, not us, is in control.
It interrupts us and we respond. It decides when we need to stop doing what we were doing and what we should do next. It decides that the person on the other end of it is more important than the person sitting next to us when we are out for dinner. It decides that the customer in the queue takes second place to the one on the phone. It decides that doing a puzzle with your child can happen while you chat with someone else, that their time is less important.
Is that really what we want from a noisy piece of plastic? For the sake of our sanity, our ability to finish a task, our relationships and our parenting it is time to wrench back control.... to beat our addiction....
So..... the next time the phone rings...... brace yourself... take control.... and leave it alone....
This might be harder than you think....
Turn off the electronic stuff, find somewhere quiet and spend 15mins with no interruptions thinking about the people you actually know who you respect and look up to.
So no historical figures, no famous people, no sports stars.... (unless you know some)
What is it about them you respect? What do they do that you admire? What do they stand for that you believe is worthwhile?
And while you ponder this think about how much time you have spent thinking about 'famous' role models (or the media version of those role models) and their relationships, their influence on our children, the dress they wore or the tweets they did.... how many magazines you have flicked through in search of the latest news of people you don't know who you are never likely to meet.
Our communities, families and neighbourhoods are full of people who may not have worn a designer dress on a red carpet or kicked the winning goal but who we can respect and look up to. We may or may not have met them yet, or invested time in getting to know them and maybe unsure about how to, but they are there.
Real people make real role models for ourselves and our children and it is time for us to recognise that and spend more time focusing on them.
... you never know you are probably one too....
